1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to apparatus of the body splint/litter type for emergency handling of accident victims prior to and while being transported to an appropriate medical facility. It more particularly relates to a body splint/litter apparatus having a rigid support panel with a plurality of flexible, rapid-securing and easily-adjustable straps, and shoulder harnesses.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Various forms of emergency body splint or litter types of apparatus have found extensive use by medical and rescue personnel over the years. Among the earliest, and perhaps the oldest in use, is a simple stretcher or body litter used by early man to move the ill or injured. It generally comprised either a rigid form made up of tree limbs, or was merely a large animal skin supported or suspended between two poles whereby the injured were transported by the process of dragging from place to place. As the arts of medicine and science progressed, so did the concepts of the mechanical handling of an injured person. It eventually became known in the field of emergency care that extreme caution was necessary in any attempted movement of an injured victim. Improper movement often resulted in further injury to the victim, the effects of which ranged from contributing to a prolonged recuperation period up to the level of causing irreparable damage to the injured party.
It was particularly determined that keeping the injured victim immobile during handling and movement to a medical facility was of paramount importance. Numerous devices for immobilizing an accident victim have been developed and used over the years. Most of them have been unsatisfactory because of limited flexibility of use and application, or clumsiness, or awkwardness in size, shape, weight, manner of securing the victim or adaptation of the device to a specific injury condition.
The following patents which represent the most pertinent art known to applicant clearly illustrate the novelty of applicant's invention:
______________________________________ 2,247,360 3,151,343 3,707,734 2,361,328 3,315,671 3,732,863 2,361,789 3,449,776 3,737,923 2,409,934 3,469,263 3,797,051 2,511,061 3,526,222 3,889,668 3,158,875 3,566,422 ______________________________________
Closer examination of these above inventions discloses the need for improved devices. These prior patents diclosed improvements in support systems and harness types, such as arrangements of webs and straps, or adjustable head restraints and cushions, folding support sections, partial supports, folding cots, bulky child-restrainers, collapsible telescoping or sliding sections, or simple stretchers with restraining straps, each of which offers some advantage or advantages, but none of which are ideally suitable for use with an accident victim having numerous injuries over the full span of his body. In particular, the upper-torso splint types, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,268, are not suitable for use as a litter and provide only limited body protection and are used mainly for extracting a victim from wreckage and to subsequently aid in the placing of the victim in a litter for transportation. Regarding harness configurations, shoulder restraints as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,668, do not provide adequate flexibility of adjustment for different sized persons.